2014 CV mayoral candidates face off

CHULA VISTA  Three candidates with familiar faces spoke at a recent forum to explain why they want to be the next mayor of Chula Vista.

Current councilwomen Pamela Bensoussan and Mary Salas and former councilman Jerry Rindone talked about issues facing the city of Chula Vista and why they’re the best candidate to handle them.

At the Chula Vista Civic Center Library on May 7, candidates discussed infrastructure, council meeting times, soft term limits and school unification, agreeing on some and differing on others.

Bensoussan, 63, was elected to the council in 2008 after years of service on various city boards, commissions and civic organizations.

Rindone, 68, served 16 years on the City Council, first elected in 1990, re-elected in 1994 and again in 2000 for two more terms.

Salas, 66, was elected to the City Council in 1996 and re-elected in 2000. She was elected to the state Assembly and then re-elected to the council in 2012.

Salas said infrastructure is the highest priority for her.

“We have to really look at how we finance our infrastructure, and the way we do it now we’ll never get ahead of the curve” she said. “I am in favor of supporting an infrastructure bond so that we can take care of the maintenance of our infrastructure … to support the economic development of this community.”

Bensoussan talked about the city’s infrastructure deficit.

“I think it’s very important to see the nexus between economic development and fiscal stewardship of the city with infrastructure because if we don’t have economic development, we don’t have revenues — we can’t put more money into infrastructure maintenance and repair,” she said. “It’s a delicate balancing act to maintain what needs to be maintained before it becomes really cost prohibitive.”

Rindone said the city faced the same dilemma in the early 1990s when it was looking at Eastlake and the Otay Ranch Town Center.

“We planned for the infrastructure,” he said. “We looked at libraries and infrastructure and road maintenance and all of this is critical. It’s a two-step process. The first step is to ensure that the projects are bringing money into the city … and the second step of this process is budget priority. We can provide the infrastructure without raising taxes.”

Candidates were also asked about the 2 p.m. meeting time adopted by council members in 2012 and whether the time should be changed.

“The workings of the government need to be available when the citizens can have access,” Rindone said, adding if elected he’d be adamant about pushing the meetings to 6 p.m. “It’s ridiculous to have it at 2 o’clock. There’s a lot of good ideas and they don’t all necessarily come from the five elected officials on the city council.”

Salas agreed.

“When I came on the council quite frankly they told me they moved the meetings to 2 p.m. for the convenience of the staff and the council and that’s not what this is all about,” she said.

Salas said when serving previously she and Rindone were in closed session meetings 2 a.m.